


All The Things I'll Never Say

by tanwencooper



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Funeral, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Stiles!death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-31
Updated: 2012-12-31
Packaged: 2017-11-23 02:56:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/617315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tanwencooper/pseuds/tanwencooper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I'll be fine Derek. I know what I'm doing. Besides, I have to come back 'cause you are going to take me to dinner tomorrow.”<br/>“I am?”<br/>“Yes. You are and your going to wear a suit and sneak us a bottle of wine and it's going to be awesome.”<br/>“Fine Stiles, whatever you say.”</p><p>Derek never should have let him out of his sight</p>
            </blockquote>





	All The Things I'll Never Say

_“I'll be fine Derek. I know what I'm doing. Besides, I have to come back 'cause you are going to take me to dinner tomorrow.”_

_“I am?”_

_“Yes. You are and your going to wear a suit and sneak us a bottle of wine and it's going to be awesome.”_

_“Fine Stiles, whatever you say.”_

The conversation replayed over and over in Derek's head. Of course it was Stiles that would be the one to break the tension. Derek didn't know when their tense conversations and push-pull dynamic had changed into playful flirting. It had happened slowly. A double entendre here. An innuendo there. The others sharing knowing looks and whispered words.

It was only a matter of time before one of them caved. Derek had always thought that it would be the adrenalin rush after the storm that pushed them over. Instead it was in the calm before and Derek's constant worrying that did it. A simple promise of a future to come.

He should have never let him out of his sight.

“Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.”

Erica's hand closed tightly around his. Derek wanted to scream as the priest threw a hand full of dirt onto the coffin. It sounded so hollow. So empty. It had all been some mistake. A bad prank that Stiles was playing on him and the others were all in on. Any minute now Stiles would jump out from behind a gravestone and rush over, falling into his own grave.

The image made Derek choke. Erica's fingers squeezed tighter.

They'd been doing fine. The opposing pack were bigger than theirs, but this was their home turf. They were not about to get kicked out. The upper hand had been theirs. They got cocky. Isaac paid the price.

He should have known that Stiles wouldn't stick to the plan. The second that Isaac hit the ground Stiles was in there at the centre, fighting to get to his friend's side. He'd fought bravely until both him and Isaac were covered in blood. Isaac had healed. Stiles had not.

_'Have to give that dinner a rain check'._

Stiles last words had been said with a smile.

There were times, on his darker days, that Derek wished that night had gone differently. That it was Stiles stood beside him, clutching his hand as they buried Isaac. But that wasn't want Stiles would have wanted. Stiles was willing to die for another without a thought. Had been. Derek had to accept that.

The ceremony was over. Melissa McCall was leading away Stiles' broken father. His son had been killed in another of a long run of crazed animal attacks. Attacks he'd been unable to stop. Meaningless and tragic. If only he'd known the truth. His son had sacrificed his own life for the boy who stood only a few seats behind him.

Derek knew he should move away. Every second here was just another moment he was tormenting himself. When he left that would mean the end. It was over. Stiles was finally, truly, completely gone. He stood in the cold, holding on to Erika's hand as if she could stop him from shattering apart from the inside out, until they were the only two people there.

“I never even got to tell him that I- I loved-”

Erica wrapped her arms around him as he broke down into sobs, his first since he held Stiles in his arms as the life bled out of him, helpless to stop it. 

“He knew, Derek. He knew.”

 


End file.
